Forks Over Knives Screening
This Thursday, August 11, the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington will be screening the documentary film Forks Over Knives. Find more information here and here. Learn more about the film here.
Don’t miss this opportunity to see this film. So far, there are only limited screenings around the nation.
Kick Ass Organic Deli in Sayville
Delicious, organic and healthy food on the go is easy with Cornucopia in Sayville. In the front, you have a regular health food store, in the back is an organic deli and juice bar. You can get a smoothie, a shot of wheat grass, a piece of wild salmon with a ginger soy sauce or roasted roots (my favorite), among many others. If you want a break from cooking, but you still want to eat healthful, delicious, organic food, try out Cornucopia. They also have a few tables at the deli if you want to stop there for lunch. Check out their deli menu here. You’ll find plenty of vegan, dairy free, gluten-free and vegetarian options. When you try it out, let us know what your favorite dish is.
FYI- Cornucopia also carries local, organic, farm fresh eggs and chicken from Long Island’s own Raleigh’s Poultry Farm. If you can’t make it to the farm in King’s Park, you can still find local, organic, humanely treated, non-factory farmed chicken.
Remembering Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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As we remember the life of Dr. King, honor his work and legacy by serving and contributing to our community. Martin Luther King, Jr. day was designated as a day of service by Congress in 1994. Here are a few local organizations where you can volunteer:
ISLAND HARVEST is a hunger relief organization. They are having a new volunteer orientation session January 25. Find out about volunteer opportunities here.
LONG ISLAND CARES is a food bank and hunger assistance organization. There are many opportunities to help this organization. Sign up to volunteer here.
LONG ISLAND GAY AND LESBIAN YOUTH (LIGALY) provides education, advocacy, and social support services to Long Island’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth and young adults. Find information about volunteering here.
NASSAU COUNTY COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE has many opportunities for volunteers. Find opportunities here.
NATIONAL COALITION OF 100 BLACK WOMEN, LONG ISLAND CHAPTER advocates on behalf of women of African descent. Find out how to get involved and become a member here.
SUFFOLK COUNTY COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE has multiple opportunities for volunteers. From working as an educator, a hotline counselor or as an office assistant. Explore the different volunteer opportunities here.
SUSTAINABLE LONG ISLAND‘s mission is to promote economic development, environmental health, and social equity for all Long Islanders, now and for generations to come. They have many ongoing and successful projects with which to get involved. Find out how here.
You can also browse through hundreds more Long Island Organizations on Long Island Volunteer Website here. And you can search opportunities on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Website.
Long Island Restaurant Week
Restaurant Week starts TOMORROW! Check out some of Long Island’s finest restaurants with a special $24.95 Prix Fixe. It begins tomorrow November 7, and lasts until Sunday, November 14, 2010. Find out who is participating at http://www.longislandrestaurantweek.com/.
Enjoy the bounty of Long Island farms and vineyards at restaurants like Amarelle in Wading River, The Living Room at the Maidstone in East Hampton and Ruvo Restaurant in Port Jefferson, all of which feature local and organic foods and wines from our neighbors here on the Island.
Make sure to comment here, and tell us about your experience at one of our great Long Island restaurants.
Bon Appetit!
North Fork Foodie Tour
September 12, this Sunday, many of the local food producers and farmers of the North Fork will open up their doors for a self guided tour. This is the fourth annual tour, organized by the North Fork Reform Synagogue.
Some of the participants include Lavender by the Bay, North Fork Egg Farm, Satur Farms, Sang Lee Farms, Catapano Dairy Farm, Pipes Cove Oysters, A Taste of the North Fork, Slow Food’s East End Chapter, Koppert Cress, Sacred Sweets, McCall Wines, Shinn Estate Vineyards, and more.
The tour will last from 10 am until 4 pm. Tickets for adults are $25, and kids under 12 attend for free. Find out more information, and order tickets online here.
If you go, let us know about your experience with a comment here!
And find out about more local events on the “Events On Long Island” page on this site.
Fast Food that is Healthy!
How many times have you been on the run or at work, and needed to grab a quick bite to eat? How many of those times did you have to settle for a slice, a deli sandwich or fast food, and wished there was a healthier option out there for you? Here on Long Island there are bagel shops and fast food joints every two miles, but it’s tough to find nutritious food on the run.
Well, couple Elaine Glavas and George Karaisarides, both Certified Health Counselors (and soon to be married) are making it easier for us Long Islanders with their new business URBAN OASIS CAFE .
This is the best idea I’ve heard of, and I am so happy that they’ll be starting out on Long Island and I can partake in the delicious smoothies, juices, salads, wraps and more that they have to offer. Best of all, Urban Oasis Cafe is an Organic Cafe on wheels! They’ll be moving around and setting up shop at office buildings, schools, farmer’s markets and more, just making it that much easier to eat well.
Elaine and George answer more questions about Urban Oasis Cafe below.
JULIA WEY: How did you come up with the idea for Urban Oasis Cafe?
URBAN OASIS: Necessity is the mother of all invention. We live in a busy world. Most people don’t have the time to eat healthy on a consistent basis, so we figured what better way to help to them than to bring the healthy food right to them. “This truck is like a moving oasis, an urban oasis, in a dry barren wasteland of food options. As far as the idea, it just came to me,” says George.
JW: Why did you choose to have a healthy cafe on wheels?
UO: We really wanted our products to be accessible to as many people as possible. We also didn’t want to be fixed in one location. If we were stuck in one area, we would not be able to reach as many people. With the truck, we can go anywhere.
JW: Why do you focus on healthy, local and organic foods?
UO: We chose to use local and organic foods because we believe they have more nutrients, they taste better than conventionally grown foods and unlike conventional, they are not loaded with pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Organic is the way to go when you are looking to take care of your body. Choosing these foods in not only good for our health but also for the environment, so it’s a no-brainer. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of eateries that are providing organic, local foods in Nassau County and that is why we feel it is important to make organic fast-food available for our customers.
JW: What services will you provide?
UO: Urban Oasis will be traveling to various towns within Nassau County. Our menu will include smoothies, fresh pressed juices, salads, wraps, parfaits and delectable guilt-free snacks. In addition to our daily routes, we will also be available for corporate events, house parties, fairs, festivals, carnivals and any other event that would like to use our services. We picture our business not only feeding our customers high quality, gourmet, nutritious food, but also as an avenue to help educate them and raise their awareness about healthy eating and healthy living.
JW: When and where can we find you?
UO: We will have set routes throughout Nassau County. Each business location will have set days and times when Urban Oasis will visit them. You can track our specific routes and locations on Twitter in the very near future. You can also find us on Facebook under Urban Oasis Traveling Organic Cafe. When you become a fan, you will get to see fun pictures and receive new and exciting updates!
You can find out more about Urban Oasis at their website www.urbanoasistruck.com
And check them out on Twitter and on Facebook.
My Favorite Park
Nature feeds us. Not just with the bounty from our harvests, but on another level. We are fed by so much more than food. Relationships and friendships, fulfilling careers, spirituality, and nature are all food, and without these, we cannot reach our optimum potential. Get outside and be fed by the trees. A walk in the park not only gets you moving, but it allows you to think clearer, similar to how your best thoughts and ideas come to you in the shower. It provides that same sort of activity that allows your mind to go. Moreover, all the different sights and sounds in the woods stimulate your senses, and it’s always so revitalizing to get some fresh air.
There are a lot of outdoor spaces in Long Island that I love (hello! THE BEACH!), but I think Gardiner’s Park has to be my favorite. I’ve been going to this park since infancy. I learned how to ice skate on the pond, while my dad and brothers played hockey there. I hiked through the woods to the bay, and my dad would get me a cattail as a souvenir. I like to leave the cattails be now, and try to make peace with them for uprooting their ancestors. As a teenager, I spent almost every day in this park. I’m still there all the time. Recently, I decided that it is my favorite place to learn to run. From the parking lot to the bay is about seven tenths of a mile. A perfect amount to start off with running. The beauty and carrot on the stick for me is… you can see the end point from the beginning, and what a carrot it is! You have the sparkling bay as your reward, where you can hike along and find a serene spot to do some yoga poses, stretch, and meditate.
While running through the park one day, I thought to myself how much this park has been a part of my life, and instantly claimed this park as my own. On further reflection, I realized that the park, this land, is so much grander than I, and I am but a portion of what makes this place. I am a part of the park, as all the other organisms that make up its vast ecosystem of woods meets bay, and I am grateful to be a part of the cycle. Enjoy the pictures of Gardiner’s below.
What is your favorite outdoor space in Long Island?
Me and Gardiner’s Park go way back. This is in 1985 or 1986.
Robert Moses Causeway in the distance.
Marshes and Wetlands.
Great South Bay Bling
Where land and water meet.
The pond.
Islip Farmer’s Market
I struck gold at the Islip Farmer’s Market. Check out the pictures and links below. The Islip Farmer’s Market runs from June through mid-November on Saturday mornings from 7 a.m. until 12 p.m. Get there early, the food goes quick!
The Islip Farmer’s Market, along with twelve other farmer’s markets on Long Island, is run by Ethel Terry of Terry Farms from Orient Point, Long Island, one of the oldest family farms in New York State. Terry Farms always has lots of fresh produce to choose from. I was lured to the tent by the smell of fresh basil from four tents away, and made a delicious pesto with it. I also enjoyed a fresh arugula salad and grape tomatoes from Terry Farms.
You will also find homemade Italian food from Papa Pasquale’s from my family’s neighborhood, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, who was voted as having the best ravioli in the 5 boroughs of New York City by Zagat’s! You can find imported olive oil from Croatia (not very local, but delicious), handmade soaps from Susan Linares, local honey from Frederique Keller-BeePharm (who is also an acupuncturist), homemade preserves from Miss Amy of Bluepoint, organic produce from The Golden Earthworm Farm of Jamesport. Earlier in the season I purchased some fresh lavender from Lavender By The Bay of East Marion (on the North Fork). I dried it, and I now have it in a vase in my home (see the picture below). Woodside Farms of Jamesport had sweet fresh blueberries earlier in the season. Now they have fresh peaches and apples. They also offer Pick-Your-Own on their farms. Mindy of Little Lexi’s Barkery sells homemade all natural dog treats. If you feed your dog well, you’ll save with vet bills in the end (Remember the pet food recall! It’s scary what ends up in pet food.). Boathouse Road has delicious marinades, rubs, glazes, bleu cheese and more, which one customer described as “cosmetics for food”. If you want naturally raised meat, you can find it from WildCraft Farms, from Swan Lake in upstate, NY. Naturally raised meats are better for you, better for the planet, and taste better. Ed, from WildCraft Farms has pictures to share so you can see how the animals that you eat are treated and raised. The have it all, including whole chickens, ribs, hamburgers, T-bones, London Broil, and ground beef.
When you eat locally, you support your neighbor’s businesses, and keep the money in your community. You also help cut out carbon emissions from all of the fuel used to transport foods. From a health perspective, it is important to eat the food that grows in the same environment that you live in. It gives you better defenses against the local bugs, and helps to maintain your immune system, since your body doesn’t have to deal with germs from different environments. New York Farmer’s Markets also accept food stamps.
Check out the pictures below.
The Golden Earthworm Organic Farm, Jamesport, Long Island
Daniel of New Riviera Imports Inc., selling gourmet olive oil from Croatia
Boathouse Road Marinades, out of the Hamptons
Red Jacket Orchards, Geneva, NY
Woodside Farms, Jamesport, Long Island
Wildcraft Farms, Swan Lake, NY
Mindy of Little Lexi’s Barkery
A Taste of Home Bakery, North Bellmore, Long Island
Fresh Knishes for sale
Papa Pasquale’s Homemade Italian Food, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
Miss Amy’s Preserves, Bluepoint, Long Island
Naturally Handmade Soap by Susan Linares
Lavender from Lavender by the Bay, East Marion, Long Island
